Pipe, such as plastic, copper, lead pipe, and the like, has been used for connecting homes to and creating networks for utilities, for instance, water, sewage, and natural gas. As pipes become older, they break down, crack, develop scaling on interior surfaces that can clog the pipe, and the like and thereby require replacement.
A technique known as pipe bursting is currently used as a convenient method to replace underground pipe without the need to completely excavate the pipe needing replacement. A pipe breaking device, such as an expander or a mole, is pulled by a cable through the existing pipe while it is still underground. The expander is designed to break, split or burst the pipe, and at the same time push the old pipe into the surrounding soil. The expansion of the old pipe allows the expander to pull a replacement pipe into place.
In an example, pipe splitters are pulled through existing piping by an attached cable. Attachment and detachment of the cable to the pipe splitter typically requires disassembly of components that are threaded together and then subsequent reassembly. Often times, the threads of the mating components are further held together with an adhesive material (Loctite®, for instance). As such, these components can be very difficult to separate, and doing so is often made more difficult due to damaged threading from pipe splitting operations and/or from repeated assembly and disassembly of the components. Such disassembly and reassembly can be time consuming and difficult, which increases the time and expense of pipe splitting operations. Also, depending upon the amount of thread damage incurred, the components may require replacement, which further adds to the expense of drilling operations.